Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-07-30
THE REV. DR.. TALMAGE,
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject: ",Holding the Rope
Preached at Martlla's Vineyard.

TEXT: "Through ,vindotU IN basket
tCos 'ct dotVn By the staH"-II Cor XII, So.
Sermons on Paul in Jail, Paul on Mars Hill,
Paul in shipwreck, Pau before the Sanhedrim,
Paul before Felix are plentiful, but in my
text we have Paul in basket Damascus is
city of white and glistenirg architecture,
some mes called 'the eye of the East" some
times called 'pearl SUR ounded by emeralds,"
at one time distinguished for swords of
the best mqterial, called Damascus blades,
and upholstery of richest fabric called
damasks A horseman by The name of
Saul, riding toward this city, had been
thrown from the saddle. Tho horse had
dropped under flash from the sky, which
at the same time was SO bright it blinded
the rider for many days. and, l Think so per-
manently injured his eyesight that this defect
of vision became the thorn in the flesh he
afterward speaks of. He started for Damas-
Gus to butcher Christians. but after that hard
fall from his horse he was a changed man
and preached Christ in Damascus till the city
was shaken tc its foundation
The Mayor gives authority for his arrest,
and the popular cry is Kill him hill him."
The city is surrounded by a high wall and the
gates are watched by the police lest the
Cicilian preacher escape. Many Of the houses
were built on the wall and their balconies pro-
jected clear over and lowered above the gar
dens outside. 1t was customary to lower has
kets out of these balconies and pull up fruits
uilu iOWtIS IfOiii bllc khruellS. 10 UlllS uilJ
visitors at the monastery at Mount Sinai are
lifted and let down in baskets. Detectives
prowled around from house to house looking
for Paul, but his friends hid him, now in one
place, now in another. He is no coward,
as fifty incidents in his life de-
monstrates. But he feels his work
is not done yet, and so he evades assassina-
ton. "Is that preacher here!" the foam
ing Rob shout at one house door. " Is that
fanatic here Z" the police shout as another
house door. Sometimes on the street incog-
nito he passes through a crowd of cenched
fists and sometimes he secretcs himself on
the housetops. At last the Infatuated
populace get on sure track of him. They
have positive evidence that he is in the
house of one of the Christians the balcony
Of whose home reaches over the wall
Here he is Here he is!n The
the pursuers are at the front door. They break
in. Fetch out that gospelizer, and let us
hang his head on the city gate. Where is he."
The emergency was terrible. Providentially
there was good stout basket in the house.
Pauls friends fasten rope to the basket
Paul steps into it, The basket is liftel to the
edge Of the balcony on the wall, and then
while Paul holds on to the rope with both
hards, his friends lower away, carefully and
cautiously, slowly but surely, further down
and further down, until the basket strikes
the earth and the apostle steps out and afoot
and alone starts on that famous missionary
tour, the story Of which has astonished earth
and heaven. Appropriate entry in Paurs
diary of travels: Through window in a
basket was l let down by the wall"
Observe, first, on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The roperaier who
twisted that cord fastened TO chat lowering
basket never knew how much would depend
upon the strength of it. How if it had been
broken and the apostles life had been dashed
outl What would have become of the Chris
tian church? All that magnificent mission
airy work in Pa mphilia, Cappadocia, Galatia,
Macedonia would never have been accoi1-
plished. All his writings that make up SO
Indispensable and enchanting part of the
New Testament would never have been writ
ten. The story of resurrection would never
have been SO gloriously told as he told it.
That example of heroic and triumphant
endurance at Philippi, in the Mediterranean
iiuroclydon, under fiagellaton and at his
beheading, would not have kiniled the
courage of ten thousand martyrdoms But
that rope holding that basket, how much de-
pended on It'll So, again and again, great
results have hung OH what seemed slender
circumstances.
Did ever ship Of MANY thousand tons cross
ing the sea have such important passenger as
had once boat of leaves from taffrail to
stern, only three or four feet, the vessel made
waterproof BY coat of bitumen, and float
ing on the Nile with the infant lawgiver of the
Jews on board! What if some crocodile
should crunch it! What if some of the cattle
wading in for drink should sink it? Vessels
of war sometimes carry forty guns looking
through the port holes, ready to open battle.
But that tiny craft on the Nile seems to be
armed with all the guns of thunder that bonn
barded Sinai at the lawgving. On how
fragile craft sailed how much historical i'm
portance
The parsonage at Epworth, England, is
on fire in the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children are out and safe on
the ground, but one remains in the CONSUMING
building. That one wakes, and finding his
bed on fire and the building crnmbling, comes
totne window, and two peasants make a lad
der OF their bodies, one peasant standing on
the shoulder of the other, and down the hui
man ladder the boy dscends-JOhn Wesley
If you would know how much depended or
that ladder of peasants, ask the millions of
Methodists on both sides of the sea- Ask
their mission stations all around the world
Ask their hundreds of thousands already as
cended to join their founder, who would have
persisted but far. the living stairs of peasants
shoulders
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn Island
and right in the midst of surroundig canni-
balism and squalor the passengers discovered
Christian colony of churches and schools
and beautiful homes and highest style of relig-
ion and civilization. For fifty years no mis-
sonary and no Christian influence had landed
there. Why this oasis of light amid desert
of heathendom! Sixty years before ship
Ind met disaster and one of the sailors, UNI
able to save anything else went TO his
trunk and took out Bible which
his mother had placed there and swan
ashore, the Bible held in his teeth. The look
was read on all sides until the rough and
vicious population were evangelical, and
church was started and an enlightened COM
monwealth established and the worlds
history Inns no more brilliant page than that
which tells of the transformation of a nation
by one book. 1t did not seem of much
importance whether the sailor continued TO
hold the book in his teeth or let it fall in the
breakers, but upon what small circumstance
depended what mighty resultsl
Practical Inference: There are no insig-
nifcances in our lives The minutest thing is
part of a magnitude. Infinity is made up of
infinitesimnls. Great things an aggregation
Of small things. Bethlehem manger pulling
on a star In the eastern sky. One book in a
drenched sailors mouth the evangeIization
Of multitude. One boat of papyrIis on the
Nile freghted with events for all ages. The
fate of Christendom in a basket let down
from window ON the wall. What You do.
do well. If you make rope make it strong
and true, for you know not how much
may depend Oh your workmanship. IL